A silent vigil for the 200,000 people who died in the first atomic bombing will be held beside the war memorial on Katharine Street this weekend.

Croydon CND and Peace Council will be honouring the memory of the innocent people who died in the bomb explosion on August 6, 1945 at Hiroshima, Japan.

This year the vigil will be drawing attention to the proposals to replace the British Trident nuclear missiles with a new generation of nuclear weapons costing tens of billions of pounds.

CND and Peace Council committee member Maureen Tullet said: “There is no possible use or need for such weapons, and the money should be spent on the health service and education instead. We are stopping other countries developing them, so it is completely hypocritical to say that we must have them. The time has come to get rid of them once and for all”

The Hiroshima Day Vigil will be held this from 12:00pm until 1:00pm.